Ginter Books

 Hopefully not the last Ginter Book:

 At the moment, the Ginter family is fulfilling orders and considering options for the future of Ginter Books.

 This one is available directly, $30 including shipping (US addresses only), from Ginter Books, 1754 Warfield Circle, Simi Valley, CA 93063

Steven J. Ginter 1947-2026

 Steve's formal obituary: https://neptunesociety.com/obituaries/thousand-oaks-ca/steven-ginter-12912783

I regret to report that my friend and publisher passed away on 31 May after a brief illness.

We had not met when I wrote him a letter almost 30 years ago and suggested I write a monograph on the F-111B for his growing Naval  Fighters catalogue. At the time, his business model was pretty sweet: he'd print 3,000, immediately fill standing orders for 1,000 that paid his production costs, and whatever he got for the remainder was all profit. As time went on, sales and profits dwindled with a reduction in aviation enthusiasts, a major book distributor demanded ever higher  discounts, and printing costs rose, but he persevered. What's more, from my  standpoint, he published without hesitation whatever topic I suggested regardless of the likelihood that anyone would want to buy a book about it: I'm sure there are still 1,000 XFL-1 Airabonita monographs in his inventory. That willingness, for which I will always be grateful, undoubtedly resulted in Specialty Press having the confidence to provide me with a contract and advance to write my first hardcover book, U.S, Naval Air Superiority, which was published in 2007.

Other hardcover book contracts followed but I much preferred to write monographs for Steve. Just this year, he asked for a new one from me to fill in his production schedule; he sent it to the printers before he left on vacation a few weeks ago. I'd also agreed to write at least one more for him and know that other authors have ones in work as well. Steve made it possible for us to make authoritative contributions to aviation-history literature that other publishers wouldn't consider but he will be missed for much more than that by his family and many friends.

 

It's too early to say how Ginter Books will go forward. Steve had just established a new website, https://www.ginterbooks.com, last year and had many of his books available to sell directly (if you had ordered from him in the past month, bear in mind that will be an understandable delay in fulfillment as his was a very small business). However, his many friends are standing by to assist his wife Robin with her decision in that regard and I will announce it here.

 

We are all deeply saddened by his loss but blessed to have had the time with him that we did.

U.S. Naval Air Superiority Revised and Updated

In Crécy's current catalogue for preorder, to be released 29 May 2026: https://crecy.co.uk/product/u-s-naval-air-superiority-2

The previous edition took the story up to 1962 and the F4H Phantom. this one provides corrections and additions to the original text and illustrations and includes new chapters on the F6D/F-111B, F-14A/B/C/D and F-18 A/B/C/D. Significant events post 1993 are also covered including the retirement of the F-14 and "legacy" F-18 as well as the introduction of the F-18E/F, F-35C, and unmanned programs. 

Unless you're in England and maybe Europe, pre-ordering from  Crécy will involve significant postage. I suggest waiting until it is advertised on Amazon. It will also be available in September from Casemate Publishing in the US.

Well, That Was Colorful II

 From Scooter! Revised Edition:

 In February 1958, VA-83 had just begun a deployment aboard Essex, the first for the A4D-2, when one of the pilots made a landing hard enough to break off the right main landing gear wheel.

 Unfortunately, the hook missed all the wires so the pilot was committed to a bolter off the angled deck.

Regaining flying speed was not easy with a dragging main gear strut and a cocked nose wheel.

 

The pilot managed to retain directional control while the nose wheel recentered but the ability to accelerate was seriously compromised in the meantime.

 Flying speed was only regained after dipping well below the flight deck and nearly into the water.

In order to avoid a repeat of the close call on the bolter, the barricade was rigged to ensure recovery. Unfortunately, the right main landing gear strut unexpectedly snagged an arresting wire.

The result was an inelegant and nonstandard barricade engagement. The intention was for the nose of the A4D to go between the vertical straps, with them snagging on the wing leading edge.

 All's well that ends well, however. 

 

The incident resulted in the cross-deck pendants not being raised when there was a risk that something other than the tail hook would snag one in an emergency requiring the barricade.

 

 

F-86 Sabre by Duncan Curtis

 

Newly published by Crécy in England, to say it is comprehensive would be an understatement:

There are 384 8 1/2 x 11 inch pages, at least one picture (many in color) per page except a two-page Appendix of production serial numbers and a seven-page Index (very small font size.) Coffee-table print quality and heft (it weighs four pounds).

Duncan is my go-to subject-master expert on the Sabre. I can assure you that the content is based on primary sources or fact-checked material from secondary sources.  I am therefore certain that everyone reading his book will find much about the Sabre that he or she didn't know (or possibly believed that isn't true). As proof, there is material in the FJ Fury chapter that was new to me, and I consider myself to know a great deal about that subject.

You will not be disappointed unless you dilly-dally ordering it in the United States and miss receiving one in the first shipment from England to their US distributor, Casemate.

In Defense of the F7U-3 Cutlass

 Uninformed speculation repeated often enough becomes fact. An example is the horrific ramp strike of F7U-3 BuNo 129595 piloted by LCDR Jay Alkire on 14 July 1955.

These excerpts are from the official accident report:

The description of the accident:

Note that the ramp strike followed a successful landing and was therefore at a lower gross weight (although still slightly above the maximum for a carrier landing).

Many descriptions of the accident state the fatalities of deck personnel in addition to that of Alkire. There were none:

The conclusion was explicit:

"It is concluded that this accident was caused by errors in pilot judgement and failure of the pilot to expeditiously answer signals from the Landing Signal Officer."

"(A)lthough the afterburners were operating, it is possible in sweptwing aircraft to establish an angle of attack such that the power required is greater than the power available with a resulting uncontrollable rate of sink."

 "It is recommended that squadrons which are equipped with sweptwing aircraft employing afterburners stress pilot training for complete familiarization with time lags in power acceleration and the curves for power required versus power available."

The sobriquet "Gutless Cutlass" was given to the F7U-3 in jest, referring to its somewhat degraded performance with no increase in thrust when laden with a radar, missile control system, four missile pylons, and four Sparrow Is as a placeholder for fleet air defense with guided air-to-air missiles due to a development delay with the McDonnell F3H Demon being procured for that mission. Its performance was adequate for the task and when landed on angle-deck carriers on a descending, mirror-guided approach, relatively accident free by the standards of the time. As a day fighter, its thrust-to-weight ratio was as good or better than its contemporaries:

Its Westinghouse J46 engine has also been incorrectly described as disappointing in thrust, unreliable, and slow to respond to throttle movement. While thrust did not meet contract specification, it was not by much; its reliability was never an issue; and because its fuel control maintained engine rpm at 100%, varying thrust by nozzle area as well as fuel flow, it was more responsive than most, if not all, jet engines of the time (which of course, was inferior to reciprocating engines but resulted in higher maximum speeds). The slight lag in the increase in thrust when afterburner was selected needed to be anticipated but that was a characteristic shared by all engines with afterburners.

In its subsequent, admittedly short operational career there were no more catastrophic ramp strikes. The F8U had several over the same amount of total flight time and it was never flown from axial-deck carriers. In fact, with respect to cumulative flight time, the Crusader had much higher accident rate in that regard from all causes:

In any event, most of the F7U-3 accidents were attributed, as in this case, to inadequate pilot and maintainer training in place during the transition to higher performance, more complicated jets. F8U pilots eventually benefited from those lessons learned as the Cutlass would have.

There's much, much more here if you want to comment knowledgeably about the F7U-3's development, capability, strengths, weaknesses, and operational career:

Well, There's Your Problem

 I scanned this photograph at the National Archives 14 years ago:

The caption:

 This 6 April 1955 photo was from the same qualification period and illustrates the defense in depth of the crew and aircraft forward of the landing area.

The Cougar is being pulled to a stop immediately before the Davis barrier by the next to the last arresting cable. The much taller webbing is the barricade. It has just passed over one of the standard propeller-plane barriers that is lying flat on the deck. For a primer on barrier/barricade, see https://thanlont.blogspot.com/2022/10/barricade-and-barriers-example.html

 This last minute wave off is another illustration of the landing area:

 

The mystery was that the webbing in front of 217's nose was clearly from the barricade (also note the damage to its right inlet from a vertical strap on the barricade) but the damage on the top of the nose and windscreen was not representative of either a Davis barrier or barricade encounter. This is an example of an F9F-6 going that far up the deck (note that it has engaged a Davis barrier and for some reason the hook has spit out the arresting cable, possibly because the pilot was too quick to raise it to the stinger position):

It was unlikely that the damage had resulted from a standard barrier been incorrectly raised for the landing: that would have required a nose landing gear collapse and the damage would have been far more extensive (e.g. the canopy and the pilot's head would probably have been removed), which is why the Davis barrier was created for carrier-based airplanes with nose landing gears:

 The likely answer became apparent when Peter Greengrass recently stated that F9F-6 BuNo 128266 was also involved in the incident. My guess is that it had just landed and was being taxiing forward but hadn't gotten far enough ahead of the barricade when LTJG Genter needed it, so he rammed it from behind.

Note that I've had to angle both Cougar's nose down relative to their static position to replicate the initial point of contact but this would result from 128266 accelerating forward and 217 being pulled to a stop like 202 here.